Greenhouse-sash opener.



' PATENTED APR. 17, 1906.

N. R. EVANS.

GREENHOUSE SASH OPENER.

APPLICATION FILED PEB.13. 1965.

A .l c v Viral/512 WITH/5555s:

UNITED STATES PATENT @ETGE.

NEWTON R. EVANS, OF RICHMOND, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN A. EVANS, OF RICHMOND, INDIANA.

GREENHOUSE-SASH OPENER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 17, 1906.

Application filed February 13, 1905. Serial No. 245,553.

To all whom, it incty concern:

Be it known that I, NEWTON R. EVANS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Richmond, in the county of l/Vayne and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Greenhouse-Sash Openers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in means for opening and closing the sashes for greenhouses for the purpose of ventilation and to means for holding any given adjustment of the sash.

The object is to provide means for simultaneously opening and closing a number of such sashes and to render same operative at the expenditure of the minimum amount of effort on the part of the operator.

The invention consists of certain novel and advantageous features such as will be hereinafter described, and particularly set forth in the subj oined claims.

I accomplish the objects of the invention by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved device; Fig. 2, a vertical section longitudinally of the horizontal shaft through the top sprocket and the bearings in which said sprocket is mounted. Fig. 3 is a detail in vertical section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 4 is a detail in vertical section on the dotted line 4 4 of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows. Fig. 5 is a detail view of part of the operating mechanism, and Fig. 6 is a detail of a modified form of rod used as a chain extension to connect the link or chain of the upper and lower sprocket-wheels.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

7 represents the vertical supporting-post, which is preferably made of iron tubing and supported at its bottom upon the base 8. The base 8 will preferably be of cast-iron having the upwardly-projected toe 9, which enters the lower end of pipe 7.

10 is a bearing box having the down wardly-extended sleeve 11, the bore of which sleeve is screw threaded, and into it is screwed the threaded top end of the tubular post 7. A given adjustment of the 0st within said sleeve is retained by means 0 the set-screw 12.

13 is a sprocket-wheel which has the hub 5 extension 14 on one side and a hub extension 15 on its opposite side. The entire hub thus formed has a bore for passage of the horizontal tubular shaft 16. The hub extension 14 has an enlargement of its bore to make room for the insertion of a gib 17. This gib has aconcave face which bears against the shaft 16, and a close-holding contact of the gib with the shaft is obtained by means of the setscrews 18, which pass through the threaded 6 openings in the wall of the hub 14 and bear against said gib in the manner as clearly shown in Fig. 2. Inasmuch as the attachment of the sprocket-wheel 13 to shaft 16 is made through hub 14 it becomes important to provide ample means for making this attachment secure, and for that reason I provide the two set-screws 19 through the hub 14 at points diametrically opposite the gib 17 The hub extension 15 is cylindrical and 7 is inserted Within the box 10, above mentioned, and is enough less in diameter to permit of the introduction around said hub 17, between it and the box 10, of the cylindrical metal pins 22, which form roller-bearings to 8 reduce the friction between the hub and said box. This is an important feature of my invention. The pins are retained in the abovedescribed position in box 10 by means of the collar 24, which is moved up against the end 8 of the box, and is retained on the hub by means of the set-screw 25.

The upper end of the post 7 is held rigid against vibration by means of the brackets 26. The box 10has atransverse slot approximately in alinement with the axis of post 7, and in this slot the annular end of the bracket 26 is introduced. The recess in the lower end of the bracket conforms in diameter to the diameter of hub 10 and in practice forms a part of the box or housing to receive the pins 22, and by this construction the bracket is adjustedly secured to the hub 15 of the sprocket 13. Projecting from the side of the bracket 26 is the flange 28, which with the continuation of the bracket forms a holding member with two sides at right angles to each other to embrace the corner of a rafter of the greenhouse, to which said members of the bracket are secured by suitable bolts or screws.

The sleeve 11 has a vertical rib 29 adj a-' cent to the sprocket-wheel 13 to form a stop to regulate the extent of the rotation of said wheel. This is effected by providing the wheel 13 with the laterally-extended lugs 30, which by contacting with the flange 29 prevent further movement in a given direction of said wheel, and in order that the amount of this movement may be regulated I make the lugs 30 adjustable in their distances from each other. This adjustment is secured by providing concentric slots 32 through the web of the wheel 13, through which slots'the reduced threaded ends of the removable lugs 30 are passed and the lugs secured in agiven position by means of nuts which are screwed upon the said reduced ends.

The line-shaft 16 is connected with the sashes of the greenhouse by means of a series of jointed. arms 34, as is common in this class of devices, and the adjustment of the lugs 30, as described. in the last paragraph,

enables the lugs to be set so as to allow the wheel 13 to move a distance that will move the sashes the desired extent.

-The sprocket-wheel 13 is connected with and driven by a suitable mechanism for operating the line-shaft 16. One form of such a mechanism is shown in the drawings and consists of a short horizontal shaft 36, which has its bearings in a suitable bracket 37, which is fastened in position around the post 7. The shaft 36 has a sprocket-wheel 38 at one end, which is connected by an endless sprocket chain or belt 39 with said sprocketwheel 13, and the opposite end of shaft 36 has the worm-wheel 40, which meshes with a worm. 41 on the inner end of the shaft 42, which is mounted at right angles to the shaft 36 and has at its opposite end a suitable handwheel 13 for operating the device.

Inasmuch as the sprocket-wheel 13 has a rocking movement instead of a continuous rotary one, only a portion of the length of the sprocket-chain 39 is made to travel around either of the said sprocket-wheels 13 or 38. Consequently I am able to economize in the cost of the construction of chain 39 by utilizing a suflicient length of chain belt to go around and operate with wheels 13 and 38 in their limited movements and. connect said top and bottom chain-sections by means of rods or bars 45. Pivotally secured to the ends of the above-mentioned sections of chain are the metal sockets 46, in which the ends of the bars 45 are inserted and are there held by means of the set-screws 47. This while cheapening the cost of construction also affords an easy means of adjusting the length of the belt to suit the particular requirement of the job. By making the bars 415 of ample length primarily an end can be cut off to reduce them to the length desired and the new end inserted into the socket and there retained by means of the screws. In the modification shown in Fig. 6 this cheapening of the chain by the introduction of rod lengths is carried out in a somewhat different manners from that just described and as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. In the modification shown in Fig. 6 the thickness of the rod 50 is supplemented by plates 51, so as to fill out the space between the sides of a link to which it is to be fastened, and it is pivotally secured to that link by means of a pin or rivet, as shown.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and wish to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The combination, with the post, of a bearing-box at the top of the post, a line-shaft passing through said box, a sprocket-wheel mounted on the line-shaft, said sprocketwheel having a hub extension which passes through the bearing-box, cylindrical bearing-pins in annular series between the sleeve and bearing-box, a collarfastened to the projecting end of the hub extension and bearing against the bearing-box to hold the parts together, window-sashes, means for connecting said line-shaft with said windowsashes, means for regulating the extent of movement of said sprocket-wheel, and means connected with the said sprocket-wheel for operating said line-shaft.

2. A base having a toe, a tubular post engaging said toe and resting 011 said base, a bearing-box having a threaded sleeve into which the threaded top end of said. post is screwed, means for holding a given adjustment of the sleeve with the post, a line-shaft passing through said bearing-b ox, a sprocketwheel mounted in a fixed manner on the lineshaft and having a cylindrical hub extending into and through the bearing-box, cylindrical bearing-pins between the hub and. bearing box, means for retaining the pins in position between the hub and box, window-sashes means for connecting said line-shaft with said window-sashes, and means connected with said wheel for operating said line-shaft.

3. The combination, witha post, a bearingbox at the top of the 0st having a transverse vertical slot, a bracl et attached to a fixed sup ort entering the slot in said bearing-box saic bracket having a perforation of the same diameter as. the bore of the said box, a hori zontal shaft passing through the bearing-box and bracket, a sprocket-wheel mounted on the shaft said wheel having a hub-extension which passes through the bearing box, and roller-bearings between the hub extension and the bearing-box.

4. In a device for the purposes specified,a post, a horizontal bearing box at the top end of said post having a transverse slot between its ends, in combination with. a line-shaft passing through said bearing-box, a bracket inserted in said slot of the bearing-box through which bracket said shaft also passes said bracket being attached. to a fixed support, a sprocket-wheel mounted in a fixed manner on said shaft and having a cylindrical hub extending into said bearing-box, cylindrical 13o bearing-pins between the hub and bearingboX, means for operating said sprocket-wheel, means for regulating the movement of the said sprocket-wheel hinged window-sashes and arms on the line-shaft connected with said window-sashes.

5. A post, a bearing-box having a threaded sleeve which is screwed onto the top of the post, a line-shaft passing through thebearingbox, a sprocket-wheel mounted on the lineshaft, said sprocket-wheel having a hub with an enlargement in the bore of the hub, a gib inserted in said bore enlar ement of the hub, set-screws for locking the hub and gib to the shaft, said sprocket-wheel also havin a cylindrical hub extension which enters t e said bearingb OX, cylindrical bearing-pins between the last hub extension and the bearing-box, the sleeve of said bearing-box having a flange adjacent to the sprocket-wheel, lugs on the side of the sprocket-Wheel adjacent to said flange on the sleeve, said lugs being adjustable in distance from each other and being adapted to contact with the flange of said sleeve to control the movement of the wheel, means for connecting said line-shaft with window-sashes and means connected with dow-sashes, a sprocket-wheel mounted on said line-shaft, a second sprocket-Wheel mounted below the line-shaft, means for operating the lower sprocket-wheel and means for connecting the two sprocket-wheels said last means comprising chain-belt sections to operate with said sprocket-wheels and terminating with metal sockets, and bars having their ends inserted in said sockets and set-screws securing them therein so as to connect the ends of the top chain-section with the corresponding ends of the bottom chain-section.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 4th day of February, A. D. 1905.

NEWTON R. EVANS. 

